TRANSCRIPT: 'Questions for the President: Prescription for America'

June 24, 2009

Page 13 of 20

Gail Wilensky, Senior Fellow, Project HOPE: I want to go back to how we pay for the expansions. Estimates, as you indicated, probably $1.5 trillion to cover everyone. You mentioned savings in Medicare and Medicaid, $500 billion to $600 billion, from the numbers you've provided. Another $300 billion from additional revenue. That leaves about $300 billion to $600 billion more. What do we do in ways that CBO will count so that we can actually get everybody covered?

GIBSON: And run that down in about 30 seconds.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: Look, that's the challenge. And, obviously, there's a

vigorous debate taking place. There are a whole host of ideas, some

that cut across parties. There are people who think that we should tax